eLiberare a distribuit aceasta
Strategic changemaker. Working tirelessly to make human trafficking the exception. Ashoka Fellow.
As the United Nations convened to decide on its common goals for the future during the Summit of the Future, a new pact was adopted that outlined 56 actions to ensure that the world we are forging is actually one that we all want to live in. However, a few things were striking during this event that opened the high level weeks of the General Assembly, often called the superbowl of international diplomacy: 🗣️While there is a lot of lip service to the importance of engaging with multi stakeholders, as these are sometimes the only actors offering direct services in the areas of the SDGs and the newly declared priorities, access to the meetings for CSOs and activists were extremely cumbersome and limited, to say the least. During the second interactive dialogue, eLiberare was one of only two (?!?) non governmental organizations that got to present, from the initial already limited number of five, since the convenors ran out of time. 📉We are still far from ensuring that these meetings are representative of SDG 5, as the latest statistic, only looking at UNGA, showed that less than 10% of the speakers were women. Meanwhile, in the area of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, for example, 89% of its victims are precisely women and children. How are we to find inclusive and relevant solutions, when those impacted most by the issues we are discussing are not even present at the table? And, yes, more on bringing folding chairs and expanding the space soon - because we did some of that, too, with the help of amazing partners. ❌Human trafficking is, by nature, intersectional, hence the topic should be a transversal one across all the 56 actions adopted within the Pact of the Future, since a world in which we are still permitting the commodification of our fellow humans, especially that of women and children, should not be one any of us want to live in. A simple search in the document, however, will show that the under prioritization of the topic continues at multilateral level. This usually is also reflected in the resourcing and staffing, too. On a personal note, after fighting really hard to get our ECOSOC status, it did feel rewarding to champion the topic among heads of state, foreign affairs governmental officials and other key actors. We need to continue to seek accountability among all stakeholders who have clear obligations on combating and preventing human trafficking under international law treaties, but fail to follow up in practice when it comes to delivering on those exact obligations for the victims and survivors of this pervasive crime. #humantrafficking #summitofthefuture #UNGA #inittoendit #SDG5 #SDG8 #SDG16